Posted on 08/10/2017 4:25:13 PM PDT by SMGFan
Vegetable prices may be going up soon, as a shortage of migrant workers is resulting in lost crops in California. Farmers say they're having trouble hiring enough people to work during harvest season, causing some crops to rot before they can be picked. Already, the situation has triggered losses of more than $13 million in two California counties alone, according to NBC News.
The ongoing battle about U.S. immigration policies is blamed for the shortage. The vast majority of California's farm workers are foreign born, with many coming from Mexico. However, the PEW Research Center reports more Mexicans are leaving the U.S. than coming here.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
They are all in the cities getting welfare, it’s too hot to work out there.
YUP; used to make 25 cents a flat picking peaches in Little Rock California.
Old enough to climb a ladder, old enough to have a job.
Back then that 25 cents a flat made me a rich kid.
The growers did stress safety and not acting like an idiot, nobody I knew ever got any serious injuries.
So true, try to find a white guy hanging sheet rock now days.
The WETBACKS priced them all out of their jobs.
On a side note: I have yet to meet a WETBACK who is not a Master of all trades.
Took me 4 years to complete an apprenticeship in one trade, they must be all goddamn geniuses.
which just goes to show, the resident illegal population is not interested in picking crops as long as the welfare keeps coming in via their kids
How ‘bout this: On welfare, no job ?
We have something you can do, if you want to eat that is.
Yup. And they've destroyed that with these cheap illegals and the trashy mexican culture they bring with them. Seems like the farmers are being hoist by their own petard. Perhaps they'll try some recruiting amongst actual Americans next year.
In reality the price we pay for vegetables is below true market forces due to illegal Mexican labor. I bought a head of lettuce today in Texas, grown in California for 1 dollar. I would be most happy to pay $1.50 for that head of lettuce if it would solve our immigration problem. This market distortion is not just in agriculture. It extends into all areas where low skilled jobs are needed. My home was built with mostly illegal workers of the contractor. The contractor was not a bad man. If he did not use these illegals he would have been out of business as his competitors would have crushed him. He must respond to market forces or he will go bankrupt.
The solution to the illegal workers is draconian fines "that are enforced" against all these contractors. The denial of any and all social services to illegals with the exception of emergency medical for dire injuries and disease.
Yes we will pay more for things. What most do not realize is we pay far more in social services for these illegals. If we had no illegals working our total costs would go down. Each and every citizen contributes greatly to these illegals via taxes that go to the social welfare system.
I have compassion for these people, they are desperate but that is not our problem. The problem is in their home nations were corrupt government and business do not allow capitalism to flourish. From the Mexican border and South you have either crony capitalism or socialism with rare exceptions. That is why their economies do not lift their citizens up but keep them down.
If one looks at the natural resources of Texas and Mexico one would find that Mexico is far richer. Texas flourishes and Mexico does not.
PS
I am a gringo married to a Mexican national now a US citizen. She came here legally and obtained several degrees in our Universities. Her father paid even higher tuition than out of state tuition. She came and grabbed the American Dream the legal way.
There’s no reason to eat Iceberg Lettuce.
How about drastically cutting back on welfare for those able body lazies?
You want to eat? You want money? You want things?
Go pick veggies. Get off your lazy asses.
Not noticed any fruit of veggie shortages in the grocery store. Nor are they over ripe.
FAKE NEWS!
Hubby grew up in Niagara Falls area, they picked grapes and cherries in the summer as teens. Or they threw hay.
I grew up about 30 miles south of there and picked raspberries and grapes starting at age 14. Also, farmers brought in Puerto Rican farm workers for the seasons. They came to work and then went home again. Didn’t hang around and suck up Americans’ tax money.
Fortune is a DNC house organ
Fake News
Note to Trump: The Philippines has plenty of hungry and able workers for Americas farms AND they speak English nearly as well as their national language, AND unlike some of our neighbors they more often like America. They - the Philippines - can use this lift. Trump should offer extra visas to the Philippines to do this.
“”Arnold The Awful Schickelgruber””
Lived in CA for all of that (’57 -2006) but finally retired and got out....lots of battles in those years - some we won; some we lost.
Well remember the beating I took on FR for NOT backing Arnold and supporting McClintock.
We used to bring in Mexicans for farm jobs and then send them back after the season passed.
For a typical household, a 40 percent increase in farm labor costs translates into a 3.6 percent increase in retail prices. If farm wages rose 40 percent, and this wage increase were passed on to consumers, average spending on fresh fruits and vegetables would rise about $15 a year, the cost of two movie tickets. However, for a typical seasonal farm worker, a 40 percent wage increase could raise earnings from $10,000 for 1,000 hours of work to $14,000 — lifting the wage above the federal poverty line
If our cities and schools are empty after a crackdown on illegals, the solution is to tear down abortion clinics, make divorce impossible but for abuse or adultry and quit taxing the hell out of families.
Not to whine because the ‘filler’ is missing.
Illegal immigration is as bad for this country as slavery was. A source of cheap, abusable labor that allows unscrupulous employers to ignore safety regulations and shaft their countrymen NEVER ends well. It’s as addictive as crack and twice as destructive.
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